As part of that restructuring Renesas, that merged with NEC Electronics in 2012, announced that it decided to close four semiconductor plants in Japan within 2-3 years, including the state-of-the-art factory based in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture (as reported by the Wall Street Journal), and this may spell trouble for Nintendo and the Wii U.

The reason is quite simple. The closing factory was responsible for manufacturing the console’s Embedded DRAM, that is quite properly defined the “life stone” of the console.

The production of the 1 cm-wide semiconductor for Nintendo was responsible for more than half of the load of the factory at peak times, but the slow sales of the console determined a reduction in demand and a gap in the usage of the machinery and personnel, forcing the plant to run at a loss.

Nintendo told the Japanese Magazine Weekly Diamond that “the closure of the plant won’t have immediate effects on the production of the Wii U”, but the outlook of things isn’t too positive for the future.

Nintendo could try to contract another company to produce the component, but there are circumstances that make it difficult. According to a Renesas executive the production of that semiconductor was the result of the “secret sauce” and state-of-the-art know-how part of the NEC heritage of the Tsuruoka plant, making production elsewhere difficult. In order to restart mass production in a different factory redesigning the component may be necessary.

In light of the situation an increase in the production costs of the console seems very likely on the medium and long term due to the shift of production to a different location and to the possibility of a redesign of the hardware. One thing is for sure: the Wii U really can’t can’t get a break as of late…

Join the Discussion

I know people that want to get a Wii U. All their waiting on is a price drop.

bdavid81

I’m one of those people. I won’t pay $350 for that thing, maybe $199 plus taxes.

Jaxon Holden

I wouldn’t hold my breath, I think $300 is the best you’re gonna get. But that’s still not bad, considering the other next gen systems are $400 and $500 WITHOUT A GAME. And Wii U is actually competitively priced with last gen consoles. Why go buy a PS3 or 360 when you can get a Wii U for the same price? Just as powerful but with a gamepad, Miiverse, 2 alternate controller setups with almost every game (Wiimote/nunchuk and Wii U Pro Controller) and most importantly, Nintendo games (which is the bottom line really). I bought one day one at launch, and trust me, it’s worth every penny of that $350 and then some. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Jesper Andersson

The next gen consoles cost is higher due to their 10 times better hardware than WiiU. Both Xbone and ps4 will also get games their first year, not 2 years after release.

Also, I would rather buy a xbox360 as I dont have one instead of buying a WiiU. Why buy a console with no games when you can buy one with a lot of games?

Th3PANO

ten times better? lol more like 3 to 5 times….

orangpelupa

we still dont know how really powerful ps4 / x1 is.

actually, the flops count on PS4 are LOWER than PS3.
Weird right?

console manufacturers need to stop using flops…

kkjdroid

Load of crap, the PS4 has a Kaveri 8-core CPU and a GPU midway between the 7870 and 7850. The PS3’s CPU gets about 230 GFlops and the GPU clocks in at 176. I couldn’t find stats on the PS4’s CPU, but the GPU alone should be somewhere between the 7870’s 2,560 GFlops and the 7850’s 1,761, putting the PS4 at a good 6-8 times as powerful plus whatever the CPU can do.

Jesper Andersson

I just wanted to exaggerate a little.

Drubie87

After you deduct all the RAM and CPU cores for the OS on the PS4 and XboxOne they are maybe 2 or 2.5 times faster than the Wii U. You have to remember the Wii U is actually a “quad-core” in a way because it has a fourth ARM core just to run the OS (like the Wii). Meaning all three of its main cores are working on games. Also, it has eDRAM and, well the PowerPC architecture it uses is actually really efficient per clock.

All things said the Wii U is closer the the XboxOne than it is to the Xbox 360. It is really comparable to the difference between the PS2 and the Xbox or Gamecube back in the day.

People who say the Wii U is as powerful as current gen systems are simply ignorant! The Xbox 360 would have fallen over dead if it had to run Pikmin 3 and power the GamePad at the same time and that is quite simply a Wii game just ported over to the Wii U. You’ll see the gap widen when X comes out and some of Nintendo’s other graphically intensive IP’s.

fs

You prove you don’t know anything. Wii U is a last gen system.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

You prove you’re ignorant enough to believe that similar hardware actually means it’s all the same without considering the actual composition of Wii U compared to last gen. If I recall correctly, PS1 and PS2 were both the least powerful consoles of their respective generations yet they had the most units sold and huge game libraries that got huge fanfare. Correct me if I am wrong. Not to say less hardware would’ve made any difference, but the fact is that it was all about the games so the consoles were really popular among gamers for the games themselves. The technology jump as a whole, notably the graphical jump of PS1 over 16 and 32 bit consoles was large enough for gamers to want the system given that games went to 3D for the first time, even though if u look up the specs it wasn’t a native 64 bit system like N64 and PS2’s jump was large enough over PS1 for gamers to get that system regardless of it’s competitors’ advantages. So you see no matter how much graphics may seem important in console choice, the jump of a console over solely its predecessor matters for the system to get attention and the games that back it up and show what it can do. And of course overall system stability is a top priority also, with graphics being the least of my concerns in console choice and PS1 and PS2 having the least performance issues, depending on the perspective of course as each part of those consoles had problems that either affected game development or were bypassed altogether. Therefore Wii U is a next gen system no matter how much u refuse to swallow ur pride and no matter how much less Wii U will do compared to PS4 and Xbox One as we have yet to see what Wii U can really do. And Wii actually had some more advanced hardware than Gamecube and had motion control technology so it fit just right into seventh gen, even though Shigeru Miyamoto himself regrets not going HD sooner, but I have a theory as to why that was the right choice if u wanna hear it. Anyway call me a fanboy if u want and my evidence pointless but I actually play Sony and Microsoft ‘s products so don’t use that on me and deep down ( no pun intended) u know I am right. Just here to make a point, that is all.

Erik Jacobs

“If I recall correctly, PS1 and PS2 were both the least powerful consoles of their respective generations”
You memories have been blurred I guess.

The ps2 might have had less specs than the XBOX ( which was came on the market a considerable time after the ps2 ) , however it did have both the dreamcast and gamecube beat. The gamecube might have had decent stats on paper, but in practice games ran better on the ps2 than they ever did on gamecube. ( I had and still have both consoles )

Sorry mate, that is just one game. And again: On paper the gamecube was the better console ( released later too), But when it came to actual games I preferred playing the ps2 by miles.

mysteryman

Preferences are fantastic, however the game still runs better (by far) on the gamecube.

The gamecube has better stats. End of story. The XBOX has even better stats than that. You can debate console preferences and “better” games, but the PS2 was 3rd most powerful console of that gen.

Erik Jacobs

Hmm hard to admit, but I guess you’re right. Guess after all these years of not giving my GC any attention I’m being bias. The PS2 still sees action because there are plenty of good games out there. But as you said content is not the same as specs/ hardware performance. Owell You right, me wrong. Time to move on

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

This doesn’t change the fact that Wii U is next gen nonetheless. Who knows, maybe on paper Wii U may seem useless but once Nintendo get the games rolling full circle we will see it is much more capable than we thought, as everyone thought since Xbox One is still using DDR3 RAM it would be much less powerful than PS4 but from the games that have been shown it actually holds its own against PS4 but it’s just the beginning so we will have to wait to see more exclusive games for it to know the real deal, such as Halo. Personally I won’t be surprised if Nintendo has neat tricks up their sleeves that make Wii U run better than it currently is now to make their first party games rival that of Sony and Microsoft, though we both know it won’t be equal to them entirely. Guess we will have to wait until this holiday for PS4 and Xbox One to release to know the real deal then.

Joey1013

Morons like you cause the downfall of Nintendo. Stop buying crap so they change.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Quit stereotyping; I actually don’t play every one of their franchises and don’t turn a blind eye to quality. Titles such as Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Paper Mario Sticker Star I personally didn’t enjoy as much as other titles in their respective franchises because they did a lot of stuff wrong with them but only got some things right, if you know what I mean. Whereas with something such as Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Mario Galaxy, and Pikmin 3 are of great quality because Nintendo actually innovated with those titles and performed well criticially, even in ways gamers weren’t expecting, and commercially because Nintendo payed more attention to those titles compared to the previous ones. Their games have been crap lately compared to earlier titles is because of the freaking Japan tsunami in 2011 which caused them to shift all the support they had for Wii U over to 3DS to get it going in the market, causing Wii U to end up with a bad launch lineup, despite the fact that they had issues with HD development initially it wouldn’t have made any difference, as I’m sure you’re well of aware of. So ur notion is rather ignorant and short-sighted, as I don’t buy every stinking game they make just to call myself a fanboy. Sorry for the long comment, but just making my point. I grew up with Nintendo, so forgive me but their games gave me some of the best experiences of my childhood. I too agree they need to change and expand their horizon but I see the problem being they don’t want to be compared to the competition, like how Battlefield and Call of Duty, Killzone and Halo, Metroid and Castlevania, etc. lists goes on and on, not that they give in to everything their fans want. Quality over quantity, man-that’s what I believe. But I believe that this gen, they’ll change for the better and bring fans back. Though it doesn’t seem like it so far, they’re changing in their digital and business practices for the most part so we most likely will see them take a new leaf ( no pun intended) for their games. Shigeru Miyamoto even said that he’s very busy on a new IP so Nintendo will most likely surprise us and bring people back. So because Nintendo got me into gaming-just so you know I don’t support every decision they make- I’m sticking with them for life, while also branching out to Sony and Microsoft and whoever has great game experiences on their hands. that’s all. So also as you can see I take Nintendo’s place in the industry, and the video game industry as a whole seriously want Nintendo to blow me away again, specifically with the next Zelda, next single player Mario, or whatever else they got up their sleeves, but don’t underestimate Nintendo for one second as they got money to cover them for the next few decades to spare and you know they get real with their money, so their downfall, as you refuse to deny, is not inevitable, as it may seem on the surface. Not to say it can’t happen, but given their pedigree it’s impossible.

Only a religious/politically conservative moron (Such as “Joey1013″) can cause the downfall of “Nintendo”.

Eben

PS, albeit less powerful, was still contemporaneous with Sega Saturn and N64. Besides, the 3D was so bad back then that gamers fell in love with the cut-scenes, which, were the one thing superior to Saturn and impossible to do on N64. Ken Kituragi admitted that it was Sega’s Virtua Fighter that enabled him to convince Sony to rebuild PS into a 3D system. Both Commodore and Philips had strong 2D systems using CD tech, but Sony got the later advantage and enabled limited 3D with JPEG backgrounds on PS.

Saturn and N64 however were the true 3D consoles of their time. Final Fantasy 8 looks horrid in game compared with Zelda Ocarina of Time and Panzer Dragoon Saga; the latter even boasted full spoken dialogue in game and full 3D environments rivaling PC games of the time.

As for Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox and Gamecube… The Xbox obliterates these consoles for power. Dreamcast was amazing for 1998 – it was the first console to reach parity with arcade and second in history to parity with PCs of the time, MegaDrive was the first, but that is history. PS2 was marginally better than Dreamcast in some technical aspects but most of this story is about hype.

I guess what is worrying is that Wii U is not really the next Gen hardware wise. It has very limited chances for success considering the installed base is low and the manufacturing processes are not profitable. If Nintendo cannot get the crucial components then they may be in big trouble with this console.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Well given that Wii U can handle DX 11 through Unity regardless of it’s lack of PC architecture and the fact that the install base always grows once first party games start rolling in, I say this is just beginning and by the end of the FY 2014 they will be at the top of their game in no time at all. It’s inevitable. Without Nintendo, there won’t be a video game industry to go back to. You will see; they always come back strong.

Eben

Ninty fan,
Nintendo was significant, but certainly is not the ‘industry’ anymore.

You must also consider – when they apparently were the industry – in 1985 there were many other manufacturers involved in game production. Nintendo strategically targeted Japan and the USA, monopolising markets and third parties, but, it took NEC and Sega to keep them in check technologically. In fact, these competitors brought the best out of gaming and we experienced a golden age with the 16-bit years. Eventually, Nintendo stagnated and it took Sega and Sony to keep the games and technology at peak. What I am saying is that Nintendo could have let the industry die a la Atari in 1984. Not everybody likes playing rehashes of the same ol’ IPs, which were based from earlier ideas anyway.
In fact, 1994 would be the richest era in console history with so many platforms and creativity going on. The 3DO was amazing and contributed many IPs and franchises on other platforms.
You also miss the strange relationship Nintendo has had with the media i.e. the essentially plagiarised King Kong (Universal) and then crush Atari – the company that was also once the industry, more so than Nintendo and created games which inspired Zelda and Mario i.e. Adventure and Harry Pitfall.
The printed media i.e. game magazines did not ‘like’ Sega nor NEC as much as Nintendo, especially in America, where the SNES was so eagerly anticipated we have our first case study in console HYPE. The SNES was one of my favourite consoles in history but was a sign that Nintendo was starting to lose dominance and more to the point relevance in the industry.
I wonder if you had the same level of sentimentality when Commodore, Sega or Atari were in trouble?
Nintendo needs to have a massive rethink – 3.5 million units is simply not enough after almost one year and the added threat to their Wii U semi-conductor manufacture means that the continued future of Wii U beyond 2015 is bleak. Already retailers have ceased stocking the system a la Sega Saturn 1997. It will become harder to purchase Wii U consoles from here on.
Nintendo should buy Sega and Capcom and make a monster next generation console for 2017 based on Sega’s cutting edge arcade hardware and Capcoms sick IPs. Street Fighter 2 sold the SNES in 1991. Nintendo needs great 3rd party exclusives, and unfortunately, this life-line is drying up as 3rd parties drop the platform. Essentially, this would be like the historical gaming industry striking back at the corporate Playstation and Microsoft brands.
If I had to bet on it, I am thinking Wii U will not surpass the necessary 20 million units mark by end 2015. It is an uphill battle i.e. Nintendo must somehow treble their unit sales for the next two years to remain relevant with Wii U.
I think we all agree that this Christmas will answer all.
Cheers
Eben

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

“Ninty fan”? FYI, I actually play PS3 and 360 also at the moment besides playing Wii U and still have my Wii and have a 3DS and plan on getting Xbox One, PS4, PC, and PS Vita in the future so sorry if my username and comment is misleading; that’s understandable but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, competition was obviously a big factor in Nintendo’s decisions or else they wouldn’t have been so strict back then with their policies for first and third party development. Anybody who did gaming or game development in the 80s and early 90s can say that from experience. Actually, the King Kong case was settled and they actually won it, because they based Donkey Kong off of Popeye’s triangle with Popeye, Pauline, and Bluto, not King Kong like Universal thought. SNES was the best selling console of its era and most widely acclaimed at the time, what are you talking about? And for the record, I didn’t wanna see Commodore, Sega, or Atari fail. Nor do I wanna see Nintendo, OR Sony and Microsoft fail either this gen as like you said, competition is needed for developers and manufacturers to keep up their game to make great games that accompany their great systems. Dude, by 2015 Wii U will be selling like hotcakes as when it comes to the Big N and first party games, you can’t go wrong with them. They’ll make a comeback no matter what. Once 2014 rolls out, more people will begin stocking Wii U. Also, Nintendo will NEVER partner with a company again or even think to purchase a third party dev unless that dev is profitable and is worth it in the long run, which is highly unlikely as Platinum is the only one at this point at that climax and Nintendo lost the purchase of Atlus so I don’t ever see Nintendo doing that. They may only go as far as buying to form more second party devs, not first party-as that’s reserved for their EAD divisions- and that’s that. Nintendo’s been solo since dropping outta the deal with Sony for SNES CD add-on and the disaster with Philips and the CD-i so they won’t partner for hardware again as long as their consoles sell well in the long term. And Nintendo can careless about power; their prime focus is the experience, the gameplay so no chance of that. But I myself would like a huge graphics jump for their next console, so I’m not against that notion 100%. Wii U will recover faster than people think; by 2015 they will be past 20 million. And yes, Christmas will answer all our questions, including NIntendo’s future. Next gen gaming’s gonna rock
Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Eben

Sir,

I was referring to your name: Nintendo fan 4 lif3 and just shortening to Ninty fan.

Your story about Popeye’s love triangle was probably Lincoln Howard’s defence with Kirby – Nintendo’s lawyer at the time thereafter the suck em’ up and spit em’ out character was named after…

My point is that Nintendo appropriated some huge ideas in creating their IPs a la Disney Company and continue to profit thereafter. This is a huge leap from say the collaborative efforts of Sega and Capcom, who tend to take ideas also from pop-culture but respect the property rights e.g. Sega’s Out Run is a tribute to Ferrari not some dubious appropriation of olden days characters.

Had Sega created a Ferrari game without the proper references and licenses they would have been destroyed – Nintendo seems to have some sort of magical invulnerability and fans rejoice this, rather than as great games, which they are, but as some godlike quality.

Nintendo’s obliteration of Atari was far more directed than Sony’s plagiarising of Sega and then eventual conquest. At least Sony’s story ends with admiration: Ken Kitaragi at Sony has nothing but praise for Sega’s Yu Suzuki. I wonder if Nintendo are as willing to tell their story about the origins many of their ideas have in Atari.

You see sir, Sega has an independent gaming heritage dating back to the 1940s. Nintendo’s pedigree crosses with Atari – one may consider Nintendo consoles to be the second-cousins of Atari as Nintendo used to import Atari into Japan. Nintendo R&D knew everything about Atari consoles.

The main thing which set Nintendo apart was the control pad – not the console technology. It would take Sega and NEC to carry on the computational development through the 80s and 90s. This also helps explain why Nintendo has been so far behind on tech since the SNES.

Just like Xbox is the grandchild of the now dead Sega and NEC family trees.

P.S. For what it is worth the SNES would not have been nearly as successful without magazine hype. Mega Drive is the most remodelled console in history and estimated sales world range from 40 million plus. They were very cheap to manufacture. The SNES was, by contrast difficult to slimline and cost Nintendo quite a bit to be competitive with the Sega system. Many SNES games were chipped in order to enable the SNES to draw at 20 fps polygons. The standard SNES console could not draw polygons at a playable frame-rate. Mega Drive could easily draw 30 fps without chipping. Mega Drive was considerably powerful and cheap to produce. Sega really shock things up that generation and paved the way for Sony and Xbox in the future. Nintendo’s monopoly was over. The 16-bit chapter should not be remembered as a win but a pyrrhic victory for Nintendo. The fact that you are worried about sales rather than revenues is also misleading. Those 49 million SNES units cost a lot to produce.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Oh, I’m so used to dealing trolls on sites most of the time it’s hard to tell the difference anymore; especially since some of them make comments on my username so sorry for that misconception. And the man’s name was Howard Lincoln actually, though I’m pretty sure the Popeye part is documented. Yeah, I’m aware of Nintendo’s history and all and legacy and how they were unstoppable back then, until Sony came around like you said. Didn’t realize Nintendo proprietized Atari’s tech to form fit the purposed they had for NES, nor did I actually know about Sega’s game origins dating back to the 40’s. Didn’t know that part about Ken Kutaragi; thought he just straight up left Sony. And thanks for the explanation of Nintendo’s console tech; makes a lot of sense and clears up a lot of things. Actually proves that competition is more needed than people realize. By magazine hype, you mean all the Nintendo Power issues Nintendo released, correct? And I didn’t know all that about MegaDrive, but knew it had advantages over SNES but thought it was just simply 32 bit somewhat while SNES had to stay 16 bit since Nintendo overdid the hardware to where it got expensive. Nor did I realize 30 fps was feasible by then; thought N64 was the first to at least reach the 20 mark but I guess since that hardware was difficult to develop for they only got so much improvement when it came to 3D as it was the first 3D generation for consoles. Sega really was ahead of their time; ashame they had to go out the way they did with the Dreamcast. Consoles would probably be much further than they are now but they couldn’t afford so it’s most likely not even Nintendo wouldn’t have been able to remain stable in that kind of situation. But then again, N64 was sold at a huge loss as it was originally supposed to be $300 when it came out but then Nintendo dropped it to $200 right after Sony announced $300 for their console. Nintendo pretty much took a backseat role. Why do you say pyrrhic victory when that was their most successful time in gaming?Also, if sales are what causes revenue, does it matter what factor we put forward first as none can exist without the other? And I know it cost a lot, as devs such as Capcom put in modified chips for some of their games so that added to expenses. Perhaps the money devs spent just to get this chips in made up for it. But I doubt it.

Eben

Nintendo took the Atari technology to the next level. NES was a master piece and was almost arcade parity in 1983. The Ricoh CPU in NES blew anything away at the time. It was true Japanese engineering an not American like Atari. Only Sega’s SMS, based on arcade tech, could rival the NES, but Sega were 6 months too slow to get to market.
Anyhow, Sega would maintain the technological edge all the way to Dreamcast with Nintendo and Sony playing catch up. We all know how this ended, but what is important is the fact that Sega were quite unique in how they improved the technology of consoles and bridged the gap. The industry was amazed by Dreamcast, and, I am sure that Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft all had a few Dreamcast consoles down in their R&D departments.
I am in no doubt that Nintendo is probably the most important company in the history of video games. What many do not realise is that Sega bar Atari are the most influential. Sega started out making photo booths ~1940s and pioneered the arcades creating many genres of game including the photo real games. Atari went with video games based on sprites and Nintendo helped take things further.
Sega however did the bulk of the work developing high end tech capable of running polygons and hence began what is considered modern gaming. Without Sega, video games would be very limited technologically indeed. It is not enough to say, but someone else would have done this as Sega bridged the gap between arcades and consoles. Nobody else could have done this as Sega did. SNK tried but could not reach economies of scale or a price point.
Nintendo were very content with the excellent NES console and originally intended to make a high end 16-bit machine. Nintendo however focussed too much on gameplay experience to take things into the future. This is why Sega became ‘the darling’ of the industry as their influence spanned gaming entirely.
Every game developer, including PC, in the world was watching Sega 1986 – 2001. In fact, all modern gaming consoles post Dreamcast, bar the Wii, are inspired by Sega. Dreamcast even had a few games with motion controls so, maybe the Wii can also be included.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Oh I see now. Didn’t realize Sega’s impact was THAT large. So NES was originally supposed to 16 bit but stuck with 8 bit to save costs? I never heard that story. And yeah, I know what you mean about Sega’s dominance. Looks as though Nintendo’s supposed strategy to save money with game play cost them in the actual experience with future tech. Find it questionable why they didn’t just do Blu Ray for Wii U instead of their 25 GB proprietary Wii U disc. I think the consoles and PCs we have now ARE proof of how much Sega was monitored and inspired the industry. As for Wii, the WiiRemote is based on a patent by this guy that had made the tech for motion controls and actually first showed it to MS and Sony who rejected it so Nintendo used it for Wii. That’s kind of a long story in itself so you will have to look it up on CVG or another game site to get the full story from the inventor/patent holder on how that came to be, but from what I read Sega’s Dreamcast and the Wii do not share the same patent or motion tech but would be interesting if Nintendo did take hints, although I think the guy made the tech way before Dreamcast was even out so that’s debatable. Thanks for the cool info.

Eben

One of the best sites for video game history is Game Pilgrimage.
Have a look on Google. The author looks at every generation of consoles and discusses the technology and developments and even highlights why the media and public formed certain opinions.
HYPE has played a massive role each generation since the SNES and I worry that the HYPE about PS4 and Xbox One are to the detriment of the Wii U. To put our whole discussion into perspective i.e. my rambling on about Sega, Atari and Nintendo, once a company sort of fails to capture the media, people research/invent stories – like the kinds we are having about the Wii U. These stories do not ‘kill’ the console, but are part of the narrative which eventually sums up the whole situation.
All of these sites and game magazines and now youtube etc. help to galvanise the HYPE and so far the story is very pro. PS4. Most people have already given up on the Wii U pretty spectacularly. The fact that Nintendo has been behind the 8 ball in technology since the SNES – notice that N64 was superior to Saturn and PS BUT like SNES was released after the others.
Each generation, the ‘catch-up’ time has increased for Nintendo. They are a rich company but small company. They could easily keep up with just Sega in the industry as each manufacturer had different strengths.
I fear that the ‘catch-up’ with Wii U – going HD – has been even more obvious in the 8th generation. Anyhow, here is my history of Nintendo’s console release compared with the standard (generation defining tech).
NES: in 1983 almost arcade and PC parity.
SNES: 2 years behind Mega Drive, marginally more powerful overall albeit unable to run many sprite heavy games without additional chips. Could not draw polygons at all, unlike MD, without Super FX chip. The SNES would have been outright better than MD with a $400 launch price i.e. had Nintendo gone with the superior 68000 CPU architecture as Sega did.
N64: again, 2 years behind and arguably lacking in technology for this generation. The CPU is superior to Saturn and PS but the storage medium meant that Nintendo could not keep up with all the developments in games. While N64 outshines the PS in 3D, many of the 2D and video intensive CG games are impossible on N64 and this affected the variety and style of games available. Panzer Dragoon Saga shows that the Saturn was almost as good as N64 at fully 3D environments. It almost comes down to opinion.
Game Cube: 4 years behind.
Wii: Not even in the same generation. This console is an oddity. A brilliant move from Nintendo but is not really part of this narrative. Think of Wii as a side quest in the history of consoles which payed off really well.
Wii U: 7 years behind. While Wii U is superior to Xbox and PS3, developers and gamers alike are concerned that the console is more ‘last’ generation not ‘next’. This presents a major hurdle in itself. Let alone the semiconductor issue, which threatens the very supply of Wii U’s going into 2015. Nintendo have said there are enough Wii Us in the pipeline so there is no immediate concern.
I hope this helps to explain why the odds are so stacked against this console.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Cool. Thanks for the info. Never noticed that. Hopefully Wii U’s successor will be on par with Sony and Microsoft, as I’m sure Nintendo has plenty of money now to catch up and show everyone why they’re still here.

TheScienceEnthusiast1130

@nintendofan4lif3:disqus

FACTS (SCIENCE) at its finest.

Thank you!!!!

Here is an “upvote”.

dayo

the 360 has nothing but shooters, which aren’t even video games. try again

Erik Jacobs

“the 360 has nothing but shooters, which aren’t even video games. try again”.

Star Ocean which was a JRPG was first relased on the 360 and got its ps3 release later ( Western release anyway ). The xbox 360 had sports, racing, strategy, adventure, fighters and shooters. Your arguments are rubbish.

HAving said that , The ps3 has Ni No kuni, Last of US, Tales of Xillia, etc,etc. So I’ll stick with Sony for now

bdavid81

Well, I’ve owned a PS4 for a month now, and I purchased a Wii U just after that as well. I actually play the Wii U more, but then again it’s got some decent games whereas the PS4 is a new system so it’ll take time. I admit the Wii U is definitely a great little system, and it’s not all about the power since there’s some truly wonderful games on it.

Zelda HD is wonderful, Super Mario 3D World is simply amazing, and Pikmin 3 is a blast. I’ve even decided to go legit and pick up some Virtual Console titles, opposed to my standard Wii which is modded and I have pretty much everything for free.

Jaxon Holden

They way I see it though, is why wait 6 months to a year to save $50? The amount of enjoyment I’ll get between now and Christmas, or whenever that price drop comes, is so worth more than the $50 I’d save. The Wii U really is an amazing, and quite charming, console. I’m so much more impressed without now after owning it a while, than I was when I got it. It grows on you, BIG TIME. I couldn’t live without it now I don’t think lol. Even Netflix is so much better, now that you use the gamepad to scroll the library and the tv to watch the movies/shows. It’s like it was made for the Wii U. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my 3DS and Vita, and my soon-to-be-PS4, but the Wii U is by far my favorite console I’ve ever owned.

phayro

Netflix was used most on the PS3. How does it seem “like it was made for the Wii U” just because YOU like it? Why do you think the console would only drop in price by $50 when retailers are already selling it for $100 off? Your ignorance is depressing. If you really couldn’t live without a game console, then that’s sadder because it will be obsolete sooner or later. If someone is waiting for a price drop, then it obviously isn’t worth every penny of $350 to them. Only 3.6 million people think it is so far. Why pay $350 for a Wii U now when no games worth buying will be out before 2014? (my opinion, but you throw yours around so much that I can take some leway) You need to learn business or reading skills if you didn’t understand what the article said about the chip being made with “secret” knowledge at NEC, which they won’t just give away. If they don’t sell it to pay costs, then NO ONE will be able to reproduce that chip for Nintendo. So stop lying to reassure yourself, or just stop trying to be a know it all.

your getting on this guy’s case because he thinks there will be a $50 decrease in price while you think a $100 price cut is coming. WOW.

50 is far more likely than 100 simply because the wiiu’s problem is a lack of games. There are like no games, but after this holiday Nintendo is expected to drop games on a more consistent basis. A 100 dollar price cut would only hurt Nintendo, as it doesnt remedy their problem. Their problem isnt the price of the system, its the fact that there is no software. When that changes, the sales will pick up.

why do you think that even with these $100 price cuts you say retailers are giving the wiiu, its still selling poorly? Because AGAIN, because its not the remedy for Nintendo’s problem. Software is.

Also, this article states that 4 or so factories will be closed, on of which does the wiiu edram, within 2 to 3 years. Meaning this particular factory might have 2 or 3 years before its closed.

The Wiiu hasnt even been out a year, and the slow down in demand has changed Renesas/NEC’s plans for that factory. It took them 10 months to come to this conclusion. If within the next Year Nintendo manage to turn things around (because the big games are coming: mario kart and smash) and demand goes way up again, we could see them squash this plan as quickly as they came up with it.

There is a fair amount of time before needing to freak out. And as proof of this very situation we’re commenting on, plans can change in a matter of months.

so, relax yourself there

Stealth

I agree. Waiting for a 50 dollar decrease in price while you cant play pikmin, mario, scribblenauts? not worth it

Giuseppe Nelva

Paying 50 dollars more for 3 games that they’re going to be still there in six months?

Not worth it.

Stealth

Its totally worth it.

Ttimer

If I had the money I would have gotten it yesterday……just saving up because college is kinda espensive ._. but I will hopefully get it soon cause I wanna play SSB and Nintendoland and all those awesome games that it will have and has

Matt

3D CONSOLE POKEMON RPG… That is all.

Jaxon Holden

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They contract these things out left and right. There’ll be a line of business’s bidding to make that chip. And Wii U will be fine. Nintendo consoles sell based on one thing: NINTENDO GAMES. Much has been made of 3rd party support, but consider this. 3DS is the number 1 selling gaming device IN THE WORLD right now. 3rd party support didn’t help it achieve this status; likewise, it’s high level of success hasn’t brought in much new 3rd party support. Nintendo is the ONE company that is completely immune to the influence of 3rd parties, unlike Sony and Microsoft, where 3rd party support can make or break the system. Wii U hasn’t yet seen the 1st big wave of Nintendo software (and because of that hasn’t yet been advertised). Once the games hit this fall and in early 2014 (and the massive Nintendo advertising machine gets cranked up), the system will be fine. Sales will slowly increase, until reaching critical mass by holiday season 2014, where it will most likely break into a stride with consistently high sales numbers (around the time of the Zelda U release). People need to chill out on the Wii U doom. I’ve been around long enough to know a thing or two, and one thing is for certain- Nintendo software ALWAYS sells.

Giuseppe Nelva

“They contract these things out left and right.”

Actually no. This particular component is built only in the factory at Tsuruoka.

Drubie87

NEC likes to think no one else can figure out how to make the chip. But quite frankly, if you know anything about chip fabs, it is that any chip can be reverse engineered and manufactured for cheap given a little time. Nintendo can just stock pile these chips, let this factory close, and then buy more. I doubt this one chip really contributes a lot the the Wii U’s cost anyways.

Giuseppe Nelva

Yep, that’s why the world is full of PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U knockoffs

Or not.

By the way, stockpiling semiconductors is not as easy as you make it sound. Storage of that kind of product is very costly, unless you want to incur in a very high fault rate.

You can’t just drop them in a warehouse and pick up a box when you need it. They need to be kept in conditioned environments with controlled temperature and humidity, periodically tested, and more. That drives up costs, and not by a little.

Eben

Giuseppe,

You are arguing with fanboys. The only thing they care about is the slim prospect the Wii U still has of being successful. There is no logic in their argument just a heap of sentimentality for Nintendo. I wonder if they felt the same way when Commodore, NEC, Atari and Sega, also excellent manufacturers, were on the brink? 2014 will be the make or break for Nintendo as shareholders become frustrated and demand the board consider other business options.

It seems the Wii U has massive challenges on all fronts: manufacture, hardware (competition) and software (lack of third party support). If Nintendo does succeed with Wii U it will be testimony to the Nintendonation thesis i.e. that Nintendo managed through it’s monopoly in the 1980s to secure a permanent sociocultural impact of loyal Ninty citizens. My estimate is ~ 20 million people world-wide minimum. I do not believe marketing can even change things dramatically now.

Cheers

Eben

Stealth

I agree

Nihelus Aurenis

I’m the only person I know who has a Wii U, and I haven’t played it more than a couple times since I bought it. I bought it mostly to use it was a Wii with an HDMI cable. I thought Nintendo was insane when they announced this new system for many reasons. Releasing a new console with close to the same graphical power as current (soon to be last) gen consoles, the silly confusing name (mothers and casual gamers are very confused), and the giant uncomfortable looking monster pad they call a controller all seemed like it was going to doom the system.

After playing around with the system myself and seeing the poor sales numbers, the obvious has happened. The system, even after getting a few “system sellers” out, has pretty much failed. I was curious if the Wii U would pull a 3DS once some decent exclusive games arrived, but it really hasn’t. Nintendo finally took one too many insane risks.

Btw, many people don’t realize how much those confused casual gamers I mentioned matter to Nintendo. They didn’t buy a lot of games, but they moved a TON of hardware. The number of people who don’t play video games that bought the Wii then stuck it in a corner to collect dust is staggering. Heck, I know more people that did that than I do people that bought it and at least somewhat regularly play games on it. NONE of these people are buying a Wii U.

The Wii sold almost exactly as many games per unit as the 360. So your argument of “people don’t buy games for it” is invalid.

Also the Wii U can output more polygons, with more textures in 1080P and power the GamePad at the same time. If you think it is the same as the Xbox or PS3 spec wise you are an idiot. Again, it is a lot closer to the PS4 specs than it is to PS3 specs.

It is the only backwards compatible system as well which adds a lot of value. Have fun keeping your giant PS3 around after you get your PS4 so you can keep playing your old games. Oh yeah, and have fun buying 3 new $60 controllers plus tax if you want to play multiplayer (a $180 value). Versus the Wii U where you can just break out your Wii remotes and go to town playing multi-player.

And you may call it the “monster” pad, but after having the GamePad for input, going back to the PS3 or 360 seems archaic. And how can you know if it will turn around like the 3DS? Almost none of the big games Nintendo has planned to create a turn around have hit the market yet.

The Wii U may not be catching on with consumers, but it is mostly because of a series of delays in new game releases (something most new systems encounter), a very small advertising budget, and ignorant people like you who spread wrong information as if it is fact.

Nihelus Aurenis

The only “wrong” information I just said is that it’s close to as powerful as the current gen consoles. Fine, it’s not “close”. It’s inbetween current gen and next gen. The point is, I was hoping Nintendo was going to compete with Sony and Microsoft this gen instead of once again being the underpowered console. Calling me ignorant because I’m not a fanboy is pretty insulting.

Stealth, sales figures determine my enjoyment because low sales mean few games will be developed for it. EA isn’t bringing most of their games to Wii U. Ubisoft won’t develop exclusives for it, games (Batman Arkham Origins) are being gimped because it’s just not worth the effort when they’re not going to sell many copies on the system.

I want Nintendo to do well. Competition is good and only crazy fanboys (it seems Drubie may very well belong in this category) want a console to fail. I was just hoping for a lot more from Nintendo with the Wii U.

gf

The Wii sold because it was a gimmick that’s it. People got for Wii fit and crap like that. Wii U is a horrible system and has no chance of making it past this holiday. You’re crazy if you really think the Wii U can go toe to toe with the Xbone and PS4. It’s a last gen system.

Jack

looks like Nintendo is over they were one day the kings in gaming but no more

Th3PANO

over? lol….

Drubie87

Yeah, having the number one selling system in the world and being the largest publisher in Japan is a clear sign that Nintendo is doomed.

Jessenia Lopez

Rest in Piece Nintendo (8 sec) Rest in Piece

Stealth

This is a non story they can easily change

orangpelupa

spinning other factory its not that easy

Stealth

Nintendo has said its not an issue to there investors.

Who do I believe? I believe Nintendo

orangpelupa

they can have their solution.

or this is really not a problem. Even with the closing of some renesas factory, its possible that their production capacity still enough.

wii u are not selling very hot.

Stealth

The fact that this story hasnt been picked up by anyone else tells me its not really a big deal.

Yeah its not selling hot but that has nothing to do with this

orangpelupa

the cause and effect are reversed.

because its not selling hot, this production capacity problem is not a problem.

Stealth

Its not a problem because there are likely other factories………Its going to start selling better hell it already has started

orangpelupa

we are back to the 1st reply haha

Giuseppe Nelva

160,000 in three months. Yeah sure, it already has started

I’s sure like to see the Wii U do better, but not by flying in the face of realism.

And just switching manufacture of complex semiconductor components to “other factories” is not as automatic and simple as you’d like us to believe.

Stealth

You just cant help be negative can you? Yes those numbers are terrible but they are already tracking better than that.

Giuseppe Nelva

I can’t help being “realistic”.

Realism and identification of the problems is the first step on the way to recovery.

Stealth

Your not being realistic, your being negative and it drives me crazy lol

Giuseppe Nelva

Being negative would be me saying that they’re doomed with no hope of recovery.

Being realistic is saying that now they aren’t doing even remotely well, and they need to work very hard to steer this ship around.

Stealth

But that isnt what your disagreeing with me about. Sales have increased in Japan. Maybe not by much but they have.

Giuseppe Nelva

Sales spiked, and now they’re decreasing again, and rather sharply. That’s the problem. If they increased and then stayed stable, it’d be different, but they aren’t.

Which is exactly the problem with having strong games few and far between. Sales spike one week, maybe two, then they go back down instead of stabilizing high.

Stealth

Its normal that sales decrease after a big launch but they have stabilized at a rate much higher than what previously was. Its also normal the PS3 is selling fine. Its cheaper Much cheaper.

Enough

Giuseppe Nelva

Next week they’ll be back down to 8k. No question asked. That’s no stabilization until you see multiple weeks with similar numbers.

Stealth

really? no questions asked? we will see about that

Giuseppe Nelva

I present you with ALL the upcoming Wii U games in Japan for the next few months.

You’ll notice that the next big game will be released on August the 24th. There’s literally nothing keeping the sales of the console up for the upcoming few months.

Yakuza 1+2 might drive some units on August the 8th, but it already came out for PS3, so that’s in doubt.

Still, even if we consider Yakuza, it’s a large gap.

Stealth

2 Big games in japan in August. The next game is actually launching 08/08

Giuseppe Nelva

That’s a game that was already on PS3, and it was a remake to begin with. How many units do you expect it to move?

A port of a remake isn’t exactly that big of a pull.

And that’s a whole month from now.

Stealth

I expect it to at least sell, and move units up a bit. Your just pretending like it doesnt exist is premature. Yakuza is a big deal in japan, and when a series is a big deal, ports sell

Giuseppe Nelva

sure it exists, that’s why I said it’ll move “some” units. Yakuza is a big deal, but almost everyone that wants it already has it, exactly like it happened over here with Mass Effect 3.

And it’s still a whole month away.

Stealth

You dont know that at all. And its a completely different series, region, ect.

Giuseppe Nelva

That’s how it always happens with that kind of product. If there’ll be a spike, it’ll be extremely small.

And it’s still a whole month away. And that we *do* know.

Stealth

You said it will drop 2k in sales next week. I think with this title it wont be.

And the next major title is only 2-3 weeks after that.

Giuseppe Nelva

What “this title”?

Yakuza is out in a *month* for now. And the next sales chart is going to be about the week that just passed, ended today.

A title coming a month for now is not gonna bolster sales in the past.

Stealth

Sales have increased even when a title isnt released. For a guy who tells me not to be so definitive, your the same

Giuseppe Nelva

Umh no. Sales has gone down sharply every single week since Pikmin 3 mate. Including last week despite the fact that Lego City Undercover was released.

Check the charts.

Stealth

Sales might be down but compared to where the wii u was? UP way up

Giuseppe Nelva

The trend is going radically downward. Ignoring trends when examining sales is disingenuous. And your idea of “way” up is way elastic lol, without mentioning that the trend didn’t stabilize yet, so there’s every reason to believe that it will continue with the next charts.

Until it stabilizes, saying that sales are up is looking at it with rose tinted glasses.

Stealth

The trend is Up for the last 4 weeks actually, although sales might be decreasing every week they are much higher than what they have been.

Giuseppe Nelva

Lol that’s not what a trend is. A trend is simply a direction of a graph. And the graph is currently going down, sharply.

There’s no way to spin it.

Stealth

That isnt just what a trend is.

We might as well agree to disagree and save both our Sundays

Giuseppe Nelva

It sure has been picked up a lot in Japan.

Stealth

It has. Over 200% increase, been the top selling console in japan since pikmin 3 launched. Its not doing record breaking numbers but it is picking up

orangpelupa

nelva “picking up” refer to Wii U start selling

or refer to “The news” ?

O_o

Giuseppe Nelva

Wii U start selling better. It’d be good for the industry as a whole.

Giuseppe Nelva

did already tell you once to check the media create charts with more attention.

It’s almost back down to pre-pikmin numbers and it was *not* the top selling console in Japan last week. It’s been plummeting week by week by several thousands, and last week it’s been beaten by the PS3 despite the release of Lego City Undercover.

Pikmin gave it rather short temporary spike that lasted two weeks.

Stealth

And I told you I do check the numbers. It is not back to pre pikmin numbers at all. And it was a statistical dead heat actually. Its not plummeting.

Giuseppe Nelva

You check the numbers so well that you just said that it’s been the top selling console in Japan since Pikmin 3 launched, which is in fact false, as this week it’s been beaten by the PS3, which is on its way out.

Also. 22,000 -> 14,000 -> 11,000, which is what you call “plummet”. Next week it’ll be back to 8,000, which is exactly pre-pikmin values, which is why I said “almost”.

Off the rose tinted glasses please.

Drubie87

The original Pikmin sold about 1.8 million units world wide. Pikmin 2 sold fewer. Pikmin is one of the most awesome games I’ve ever played and i personally love it.
But it is one of Nintendo’s WORST selling franchises. If Nintendo was actually able to take the lead over the PS3 and its massive library with one of their weakest franchised, even temporarily I would say that is a good sign and hardly a sign of weakness on Nintendo’s part.

It kind of makes you wonder what is going to happen when Super Mario 3D land (3D Mario games sell an average of 8 million units a piece), Wind Waker (Zelda titles sell an average of 5 million units a piece), Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze (sell an average of 7 million units a piece), Sonic Lost Worlds (Sonic sells an average of 2 to 3 million per title), all hit before the end of the year.

Not to mention wild cards like Wonderfull 101 and next year when Mario Kart as Smash Bros hit (Mario Kart sold 33 million units on the Wii alone and Smash Bros sold nearly 12 million units on the Wii alone).

Also, I don’t think the the PS3 is on its way out. Sony themselves have said, expect the PS3 to continue to be supported for years after the PS4 comes out as they use it to address a lower price segment of the industry.

Giuseppe Nelva

A handful of games don’t a library make. Those games will most probably all big sellers (wind waker probably less than the others, being a remake), but they’re way too few to make a lasting difference.

The PS3 has almsot saturated Japan. People that already have a PS3 don’t buy another, even more so now that the PS4 is incoming.

You notice it quite clearly when you see big PS3 games coming out. Dragon’s Crown sold a lot more on PS3 than on Vita, but it drove a lot of Vita consoles and not many PS3s, because those that want to play it, in most cases, already have it.

Overtaking a console that has already saturated its market, even more so for a temporary spike that got consumed in two-three weeks, is far from a victory.

Giuseppe Nelva

They siaid it’s not an “Immediate” issue. Quite different.

orangpelupa

btw Nintendo seriously got bad price contract for producing Wii U. They say that they sold Wii U at a loss.

wow
what a bad price contract they got.

Look at wii u spec, look at the simplicity of the mainboard, the cooling…. everything.
they shold be able to sell it at a PROFIT, not at a loss.

Stealth

Why would you say that? The ps3 and 360 only started making profit a few years ago. Its not as simple as you make it seem.

orangpelupa

see your own logic.

Wii U spec are not far above X360 or PS3.

If X360 or PS3 now can make profit. Why cant nintendo?

They also have the benefit of more modern architecture and more commonly available components.

for example, PS3 use XDR RAM that no one uses, PS3 use CELL that no one uses.

Stealth

They are though if you actually look at the parts and when they were made.

According to Reggie they make profit with each first party game sold. So really they do make profit.

Giuseppe Nelva

That’s not making a profit with the console. That’s making a profit with the royalties of games (like everyone). The console itself is sold at a loss.

Stealth

Thats what is implied.

orangpelupa

i mean profit for each console sold.

nintendo wii u that the benefit of modern architecture and fabrication, using more common component than PS3 or Xbox 360.

ps3 and x360 can make profit for each unit sold. Why nintendo loss at each wii u sold?

Drubie87

Because the Wii U comes with a GamePad (which has a wireless N adapter in it just for talking to the Wii U which has two wireless b/g/n adapters in it. One for talking to the GamePad and the other for talking with your router and connecting to the internet) and is WAY more powerful than the Xbox 360 or the PS3.

It has 8 to 4 times the RAM, full backwards compatibility, a triple core processor that actually mops the floor with the 360’s because it is super efficient per clock, and a very beefy GPU that can run circles around the 360 or the PS3 in addition to an ARM processor or “fourth” core that is used exclusively for running the OS.

Also the Wii U has a sound processor (kinda like a specialized fifth core) unlike the Xbox 360 which uses its CPU to output sound effects. It also does use some custom components to further increase performance (unlike the XboxOne and PS4) like 32 MB of super fast low latency eDRAM.

orangpelupa

1st paragraph

wireless are cheap. because nowadays they stay on SoC. Not some seperate module.

Wii U ram also cheap, it use DDR3. A very commonly used RAM.

they did not use

-XDR RAM that no one use except PS3
-GDDR3 that xbox 360 uses but not as widely used as DDR3.
————–

2nd paragraph

Wii U have 2 GB RAM. Its 4x Xbox 360 or PS3 but use cheaper RAM Chip than Xbox 360 and PS3.

May i see your source for saying Wii U CPU mops the floor with 360? and very beefy GPU that can run circles around the 360 or the PS3?

About the ARM CPU, its rumored without spec and we dont know it really goes inside Wii U or not.

Its rumored to handle idle functions so they must be low power, low performance cpu. Thats not expensive.
————

3nd paragraph

They are called DSP. It does not output audio, it process audio.
Have you played The Last of Us? They use CELL’s SPU as DSP and it sounds superb. The game looks nice too.

Btw why mention PS4 and Xbox One? Okay.. i mention them too…

Xbox One also have its own DSP

eDRAM?
Xbox 360 used it.
Xbox One used eSRAM.

Hans Engnell

No, the Wii U won’t be fine. Although the sales will increase during the holidays, like they always do, and will likely increase somewhat next year when Mario Kart 8 and Smash arrives, Nintendo will then be up against PS4 and Xbox One. They’ve had a year competing against nothing but 7 year old consoles, and still it has been a complete mess.

The retailers are already starting to lose patience with Nintendo, and it is not hard to understand why. The system is not selling. The fate of the Wii U will be decided this holiday season. It will likely be crushed by the XB1 and PS4. The question is if it will be outsold by the 360 and PS3 as well (don’t forget that GTA V is released in September). If so, the Wii U is more or less dead. If not, the console may still have some fighting spirit left in it.

Background Noise

They still make Nintendo’s???

Neolarthytep

I don’t understand why we continue to have this arguement people. I bought the Wii U for 2 reasons. A.) Nintendo properties. I don’t care if it’s the same old Mario over and over again, it works. B.) It’s a party system. SOme people don’t need to play online with a bunch of trash talking 12 year olds, and still have friends come over and have a grand time playing nintendo land . Oh and I’ll just toss in C.) I don’t care about the latest CoD or Madden, so why do I need a crappy Xbox or PS4 to get the same old crappy bro games.

Neolarthytep

Haters hate all you want but when I new Zelda and smash bros. comes out you’ll be eating your words.

Stealth

I totally agree

Peristarkawan

The problem comes when Nintendo decides to cancel future development and scrap the console because of all the issues it’s having. Remember the Virtual Boy? I’m not philosophically opposed to the Wii U and would like to get one, but I’m leery of dropping $300 on it when the system’s future looks so uncertain.

Neolarthytep

Yea comparing this to the virtual boy is Laughable. I highly doubt that will happen. Worse case scenario they run it for a couple more years then come out with a newer more powerful system. They aren’t going to scrap it

lasdjkf

It’s doing just as bad as the Virtual Boy. The Wii U is a failing console, I don’t see it doing better than $30 million units.

Moukka_Gamer

B) PlayStation properties are better than Nintendo. C) You’re an idiot, no one pays attention to CoD or Madden. Casual gamers just buy what their friends buy which happens to be CoD and Madden. Which those games are on the Wii U as well, so your console has the same two crappy games as the other consoles.

lasdjkf

A) PlayStation properties are better than Nintendo. B) You’re an idiot, no one pays attention to CoD or Madden. Casual gamers just buy what their friends buy which happens to be CoD and Madden. C) Those games are on the Wii U as well, so your console has the same two crappy games as the other consoles.

It’d be really cool if news stories about the Wii U could stop using two-year-old stock photos of Iwata holding the prototype controller.
Aside from that I think the active information here is “within 2-3 years,” giving Nintendo enough time to find a solution.